Three concentrating men born October 29: The Shah of Iran (1919). Carl Djerassi (1923) and A. j. Ayer (1910)

For an analytic, logical positivist philosopher A. J. Ayer had an astonishing number of sexual liaisons in addition to his four marriages, even fathering at least one illegitimate, on the Hollywood columnist Sheila Graham. It has been said he was "a slave to his libido" and one colleague described him as 'a great mind ruined by sex". As could be predicted by his philosophical affiliation, he was an atheist, but attested to a powerful NDE (near death experience) which caused him to alter his beliefs.

Carl Djerassi is the chemist who invented the oral contraceptive, forever changing the very nature of sex. A man of many brilliances, he greatly concerned himself with the ethical and philosophical implications of the entrance of science and technology into the world of human reproduction. He is a prolific writer and playwright. His play "An Immaculte Misconception" deals with in vitro fertilization, and is published along with the play "Taboo" under the title "Sex in an Age of Technological Reproduction". Others include "Phallacy" and "Foreplay". His life was turned around by the terrible suicide of his daughter.

Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the exiled Shah of Iran, endured a prolonged and very public death, from a rare indolent cancer, Waldenström's macroglobulinemia. Few people have had their death's so thoroughly scrutinized by the international press. He kept a harem og women and had this to say about the opposite sex:

“ . . . All I can say is that women, when they govern, are much harsher than men. Much crueler. Much more bloodthirsty. I’m citing facts, not opinions. You’re heartless when you have power. Think of Catherine de Medicis, Catherine of Russia, Elizabeth I of England. Not to mention your Lucrezia Borgia, with her poisons and intrigues. You’re schemers, you’re evil. All of you."

Article originally appeared on astrologydatapoints (http://astrodreamer.squarespace.com/).